Bob Diamond to Start His New Job Early

The third-largest bank in Britain will ring in the new year with a new CEO. Bob Diamond will start work as the new CEO of Barclays a few months early, according to Bloomberg:

“We are now ready to effect the hand-over,” Chairman Marcus Agius said in the statement. “The speed with which the transition has been completed reflects the continuity in management and strategy that the succession provides.”

Massachusetts-born Diamond has led Barclays’s investment- banking expansion, including the 2008 purchase of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s U.S. operations. His Barclays Capital unit accounted for 66 percent of the lender’s pretax profit in the first half, up from half last year.

Mr. Diamond can be seen at right, breaking ground on the Atlantic Yards construction site in Brooklyn with Jay Z.